Vintage Style Reference in Vernacular Photographs

[cookie]

You like this Warbaby?


"Family Group Outdoors" 1915

This picture only strengthens Marc Chevalier's point about the early newsboy caps and their wonderful look/vibe that the later ones do not capture.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Delivering the mail in Los Angeles - probably early 1920s. I only wonder how long it took to deliver it, it's a nice picture anyway!

The girl obviously loves her horse. That look and connection resonates within me. Thanks for the picture HadleyH.

 

[Fletch]

Somewhere in Onawonamac,(SP?) Wisconsin.

That's Oconomowoc (say oh CONNA ma walk). This one-time resort town, second home to many well-to-do Chicago and Milwaukee families, was known as "The Newport of the West."

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Thanks for clarifying that Fletch. It explains the bill of sale I found for furniture in the book from 1927 for a total of almost $2,000! A lot of dough back in that day.

 

[Fletch]

Cub Reporter, Kansas City, ca. 1936

Walter Wilcox of KCMO wrote and delivered news bulletins as well as calling telegraphed sports events.
By 1939, he had moved on to a correspondent's slot at United Press under his real name: Walter Cronkite.

 

[Lone_Ranger]

Delivering the mail in Los Angeles - probably early 1920s. I only wonder how long it took to deliver it, it's a nice picture anyway!

Great picture H. The back story behind that one would be interesting. Were female postal workers common, in the 1920's?

 

[HadleyH]

Great picture H. The back story behind that one would be interesting. Were female postal workers common, in the 1920's?

Lone_Ranger, according to U.S. Postal Service, in 1920 about five percent of the nation 943 village carriers were women.

Here is another portrait of a woman Letter Carrier 1920.

 

[Warbaby]

Some photos of my mother (b.1920) and friends, 1936-1939 - typical teenagers in Western Pennsylvania:

This was her favorite jacket - dark green leather.

College Friends:

One of her college beaus:

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Very nice Warbaby

I especially like this one

 

[Lone_Ranger]

Lone_Ranger, according to U.S. Postal Service, in 1920 about five percent of the nation 943 village carriers were women.

Here is another portrait of a woman Letter Carrier 1920.

Thanks, H! I wouldn't have thought twice, if it were the 40's. I suppose women pitched in during WWI and afterward, the same way they did in WWII.

A little Gooogle and I found this...

While horse-drawn wagons were the norm for rural delivery, the Instructions for the Guidance of Postmasters and Carriers in the Conduct of the Rural Delivery Service in effect March 4, 1907, authorized Postmasters:

. . . to permit carriers to temporarily perform service on horseback, or by use of bicycles or motorcycles, when their horses need rest or while the roads, owing to storms or other causes, are temporarily impassable for other vehicles, but all mail matter, service equipment, and supplies shall be as completely protected from damage or loss as when the regular conveyance is used, and the schedules ordered by the Department must not be varied from.

 

[Warbaby]

There's something about this couple (1905) that makes me wish I had known them. For the time period, they seem unusually casual and comfortable with each other and evoke a sense of absolute confidence and self-satisfaction.

 

[HadleyH]

^

She doesnt look so happy Warbaby.

 

[NicknNora]

I love this thread. My thanks to everyone who shared photos. :eusa_clap

 

[Drew B]

^

She doesnt look so happy Warbaby.

I have to agree Hadley. They are a very casual couple but the lovely lady looks like her husband just told her that her bum looks big ... or something to that effect. She just doesn't seem amused. Perhaps she was once attatched to a charming but un-reliable photographer who at the last minute of their wedding day didn't show and the very thought of photographs sends her into a spiral of hate and pain. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it?

On a serious note, however; I've said it before but I'll say it again, Thankyou for all these pictures. I have created a Vernacular Folder in my FL folder and now every photo goes in it with a date and description which I will later subcatagorise into decades. So Thankyou once again.

Cheers,
Drew.

 

[HadleyH]

I have to agree Hadley. They are a very casual couple but the lovely lady looks like her husband just told her that her bum looks big ... or something to that effect. She just doesn't seem amused. Perhaps she was once attatched to a charming but un-reliable photographer who at the last minute of their wedding day didn't show and the very thought of photographs sends her into a spiral of hate and pain



Cheers,
Drew.

Yes! lol Something along those lines! lol lol

 

[Warbaby]

It's interesting the different ways one can interpret the facial expressions in old photographs. I took her expression to be a smirk of smug self-confidence, with a touch of arrogant pride.

OTOH, I could be entirely wrong and he could be a possessive, controlling brute who takes perverse pleasure in submitting her to unspeakable acts of degradation.

OTOH, she is taller than he and looks pretty strong - perhaps it is she who dominates the relationship, a woman of means and power who owns him, body and soul, a woman who keeps her well-endowed gardener as a pet and indulges her wanton desires without mercy.

​

 

[High Pockets]

OTOH, I could be entirely wrong and he could be a possessive,.....

​

Prior to reading your post Warbaby,..while studying the photo, I couldn't help notice the body English, nor thinking that he perhaps does seem to be a bit possessive. Which unfortunately is a trait which in today's world which is considered by many to be horrid.

I don't think she looks unhappy in the least,.....she looks "confident".

Beautiful photograph.

 

[Warbaby]

That was pretty much my take on the photo, as well. The way he's standing with his hand on her shoulder does convey a sense of possession on his part. You don't often see Edwardian photos with that kind of informal closeness. But I think he's possessive because he thinks she's pretty hot stuff. To me, she appears proud that he wants to possess her because she thinks he's pretty hot stuff, as well. You also don't often see Edwardian men wearing an open-necked shirt with the sleeves casually turned up. I would think that an adventuresome woman of the era would find him sexy and dashing.

I'll bet they both had a whole lot more fun in their private moments than most Edwardian couples...

 

[Ghostsoldier]

I think she looks that way because she's just plain ugly, and she knows it...
Rob
(Sorry...'beauty is in the eye', you know....lol )

 

[Fletch]

Hot shot pilot, 1928

W.A. "Al" Henley, pilot with Ryan Airlines of Tulsa, Okla., on his Ryan Brougham, NX3598, at Davis-Monthan Airfield, Tucson, Ariz., January 13, 1928. The multiple pens in his pocket are a typical aviator's touch, even if the dashing business clothes are not.